Lean manufacturing system pushes Polish cos. to cut fat
Elmot, a Świdnica-based producer of electrical equipment for cars, tractors and stationary engines, is one of a handful of Polish companies that has adopted the lean manufacturing (LM) system for boosting efficiency and reducing product delivery times. Pioneered by Japan's Toyota Corp. in the 1980s, the LM system has allowed Elmot to cut its order fulfillment time in half and react more flexibly to client demands. Elmot started to implement LM two years ago. "We're saving on production space and time and we're able to cut back on extra inventories," said Andrzej Bielecki, representative of Elmot's board that handles LM implementation. "It doesn't make sense to produce inventories when there is no client waiting for these products."
Just-in-time delivery LM is based on the principle of finding ways to eliminate surplus inventories. One way to achieve this is to be able to reset machines according to immediate needs. "We can now reset our machines in 10 minutes while in the past it took us three hours; this allows us to react faster to client demands," Bielecki said. "I would compare it to changing the wheel on a car. For a normal driver it takes 10 minutes but during Formula One races it takes four seconds to change all four wheels." While LM was introduced to Elmot by U.S.-based Delco Remy, which bought the Polish firm in 2000, most domestic manufacturers have little knowledge of the system. But the Wrocław University of Technology, the only LM-accredited university in Europe, aims to fill that gap. Licensed by the University of Kentucky, a leader in LM training in the United States, Wrocław University has conducted seven two-day seminars on lean manufacturing techniques for Polish managers.
"There really is not any specific cost associated," said John Podlasek, an LM trainer at Wrocław University. "Well, consultants may be necessary and training costs as well. It is more a concept of changing the way companies produce parts and changing ideas in order to get the program moving along. Seminars cost some zł. 1,000 per participant while the Wrocław University pays a license fee of $5,000 annually to the University of Kentucky." According to Podlasek, many Polish manufacturers could reduce their inventory and production costs by up to 75% if they adopted the system. "Polish companies have to become more efficient to compete on world markets," he said. "What happens in most companies is that to produce one part they produce thousands, but you have to be able to react faster to customer demand and that's why you have to stop producing a thousand every time you need one part."
Lean techniques Thanks to LM, manufacturers can eliminate non-value-added steps that customers don't pay for such as handling, moving and inventory storage. "In one company I consulted, it usually took four hours to set up machines but when we finished (implementing LM) it took 10 minutes," he said. "So they saved more than three hours that they can use to react more quickly to customers' demand." But not all Polish companies are likely to embrace the LM system, Podlasek said. "What can be viewed as a disadvantage in Poland is that sometimes LM eliminates unnecessary jobs, even up to 25% of the workforce. Of course you can retrain these people in different areas but it's easy in the U.S., where the economy is strong and people are used to switching jobs. Not in Poland. On the other hand, to become efficient on the world market, this is pretty much how it works. Now it's time to get smaller, become efficient and then grow."
